Legacy
by Danten
Summary: What if, after the impact caused to the world by one mind, in combination with a deadly power, a new threat rised to finish what he started? Will the legendary "L" be able to counter it again? The legacy began by Light and "L" lives on. Contains OC.
1. Introduction

_Note: This story was originally published in my other account, Gernika, but for commodity reasons, I decided to move it to my regular account._

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"It is actually very simple," Near said, playing with his hair like he was used to do whenever he was thinking over a case."The killer is none other than Mr. Arakama" He alleged with an indifferent and somewhat bored face, as if he was saying'two plus two equals four'.

"But that's impossible!" one of the police officers exclaimed, surprised by Near's verdict. "He has an alibi, he was with his wife the whole time, and he couldn't possibly be in two places at the same time. Also, it was already proven that, besides the fact that her husband was a suspect, she is not related in any way to the case!"

Near shook his head from one side to the other in disapproval "You are not thinking." He simply said without a smile or giving any other signal of emotion. "Read the wife's testimony again." He ordered with an authoritarian tone to another officer sitting beside him.

"Uh…yes, sir." He responded, searching for the right document in a huge pile of papers. After what could easily be a whole minute, the document was found and the officer started to read it "'Mrs. Arakawa spent the entire day in the house. She woke up at 9:12am to feed the dog and was bitten by it while doing so; the marks in her hand proved positive to belong to a dog. At 1:31pm, a friend of her came over and they had lunch together; Mrs. Ryona, the friend in question, was interrogated and she claimed that it was true…'" The officer removed the paper from in front his face "It is also important to note this woman is the one Mr. Arakawa was having an affair with; of course, his wife wasn't aware of it at that time"

"It's ok, just continue" Near ordered, looking at the desk in front of him with lost eyes and still playing with his hair.

"'…She did housework from 3:11pm to an unknown hour, when she fell asleep. By the time Mrs. Arakawa woke up, his husband was already back from work and it was 11:54pm'." The officer looked at his co-workers again "Do note that the autopsy revealed that the time of death of the victim was at 11:57pm at the 'Amada' park, which is located 20 minutes away from the Arakawa residence, and that's by car. They watched a movie together and then went to sleep again."

Near, and probably everybody present, noticed that the officer was presenting that last piece of evidence as if wanting to prove the "**L**" successor wrong; but why, nobody could tell.

"But that only proves you wrong." the first officer said, and he seemed confident of his statement. "Sure, that nap does sound suspicious, but does it matter? This proves both of them were at the house during the killing"

"You are wrong." Near said with an indifferent smile "What this proves is that, by the time Mrs. Arakawa woke up, all the clocks in the house marked 11:54pm."

"Yes, and that means that…" the officer started, but suddenly he realized what Near was getting at and suddenly shut up.

"It seems you realized too;" Near said "clocks are very easy to use, anyone can change them and adjust them to the right time in about 5 seconds. Since Mrs. Arakawa was sleeping, it was more than easy for Mr. Arakawa to adjust the time so that it seemed he was at home at the moment of the victim's death, that way, he could have an alibi in case he was found as a suspect."

The young boy's thesis surprised the entire police department present, certainly, none of them had thought of that. "Wait a minute!" the same stubborn officer said, not willing to give up "The wife should know that was the wrong time, I don't know, by instinct or by looking out at the sky. And even if she couldn't guess as far, it said they watched a movie together, and the satellite counts with a clock, so she should see the right time when they watched the movie."

"He is right with the TV, they did watch a movie from a satellite channel." Another officer ventured, but his expression revealed he was more objective than any other so far.

"It could have been taped by Mr. Arakawa so that it would ultimately convince his wife what the right time was without raising any suspicions; he is an expert with computers so I'm sure he would be able to edit the video so that it seemed like a live projection." Near explained, then looked away from the officers and concentrated on a toy on the desk in front of him. "Of course, he would definitely dispose of the tape afterwards by burning it or throwing it away somewhere we would never be able to find it. And about Mrs. Arakawa being able to tell the right time by instinct, I find it unlikely, since there were no reasons for her to suspect from her husband, and the sky looks the same at 12:00am or 3:00am."

Everyone present was speechless, including the stubborn officer, who had no argument for the thesis. As true as it may be that there was no evidence for everything Near said, the possibility did exist, and the police department had no reason to refuse an investigation on such basis.

"We are grateful for your assumptions, Near;" the chief officer said with a serious expression "We will investigate on the matter as soon as possible."

"There is one more thing you should know:" Near added while playing with a lot of wooden blocks, building a tower. "Mrs. Ryona is most likely not Mr. Arakawa's lover."

"What…?" the chief of the police department exclaimed, sitting down on his seat again.

"Mr. Arakawa's plan was counting on his wife to fall asleep at some point so that he had time to kill the victim and change the clocks, but just hoping for her to take a nap is not the smartest thing to do;" Near explained as it was obvious "that's why she had to be drugged, and during lunch would be the perfect moment to do so, when Mrs. Ryona went to give her company. By saying they were lovers there would be an explanation to their constant meetings which were probably used to plan out the killing. However, they may as well have a romantic relationship, but one thing for sure is she contributed to the assassination."


	2. Cubed Battlefield

_Disclaimer: I do NOT own "Death Note"._

_Sorry I didn't have any introduction in the previous chapter. So this is the deal, the previous chapter serves just as an introduction for you to evaluate my narrating and detective skills, if you are satisfied, you will probably enjoy the next chapters to come. I must warn you, though, that I don't have the time to dedicate myself entirely to this project, so I may take some time to finish the chapters. Anyways, please comment when you are finished reading; I'll appreciate your sincerity a lot_

**(Unknown location, 4:31pm)**

"Master Near doesn't seem too enthusiastic about his victory." An old man with a formal attire said to the '**L**' successor while leaving a cup of tea at the master's table, along with a pot containing a wide amount of sugar cubes and a small spoon to pour them.

"I wasn't willing to take on this case in the first place; I thought I made that clear, Warcley." Near said, leaving his robot toy on the floor and slowly sitting down on the chair in front of the table, placing his feet on the edge of the seat.

"Yes, sir, I do recall you saying that," The man said with a respectful tone, standing next to Near. "But an innocent life was saved thanks to your assistance, isn't that a compensating thought?"

"Saving someone is always a nice thought." Near murmured while taking as many sugar cubes as he could with the spoon and putting them in the teacup, spilling some of the liquid on the small plate. "But I don't want every police organization in the world to come to '**L**' asking for help with every little case that crosses in their way, and helping in this situation is not aiding my stance."

"As true as it may be, Master, and if you excuse my audacity, the world needs '**L**' now more than ever." Warcley alleged, still maintaining his always present reverential manner. "Due to Kira's disappearance, many rebellions aroused in response; even nowadays the number of pro-Kira religions and organizations is a significantly high number. That is more than what any regular police department can handle."

Near didn't give a response, and not because he didn't have a counter-argument, which he did, but rather because of the reminiscence of the Kira case, which was now 15 years away from the present. In the end, every Death Note that had ever been in the human world had disappeared from this realm, taken away by the original shinigami owner, and this, for some reason, filled Near with disappointment and nostalgia.

"I do resent what happened in the Kira case," Near said, snapping out of his homesick state and drinking some of the tea. "but all this uprising is not really my fault. It is true I did find the real Kira, but the revolt was bound to happen at some point regardless of my doing, since the killer would eventually be found out or vanish in time. Death catches us all they say."

"I do see your point, young master." Warcley nodded, and silence took over the room for a while as Near enjoyed his tea.

It was when the teacup was finally empty that Near spoke again to his assistant. "Mr. Arakawa was found guilty, wasn't he?"

"Yes, he was." Warcley said with a faint smile. "The police department chief asked me to express how grateful they were for your support and that they are sorry for the inconvenient they may have caused."

"A simple sorry will do…" Near murmured more to himself than to Warcley.

"Oh, on a different matter, there are new requests for your help; maybe you will find an interesting case this time?" Warcley added with his indifferent expression.

"Come to think of it, I didn't have time to check it in a while because of the last case." Near murmured, playing with his hair again. "Very well, bring the solicitude forms; I want to search through them as soon as possible."

"I was able to foresee your request and took the liberty of bringing them with me." Warcley said with a polite tone, searching in a different desk a pile of papers he had left there when he entered the room. "I am positive you will find a case of your liking this time."

"It's good to be optimistic, Warcley." Near said, taking the papers his assistant handed him and looking through the first one in the mountain of papers. "You did a good job."

"I appreciate your compliment, master Near."

Near read through the massive amount of papers for hours, not finding any mystery that would mean anything to him. All of the cases were basically the same: a mysterious killer not to be found anywhere; lack of decisive evidence to incriminate a suspicious person; absolutely no idea where to start with a simple case, etc. None of them proved to be a challenge at all to him, and he was not willing to lose some of his valuable time on meaningless expeditions when the culprit would be found sooner or later with or without his intervention. He finally gave up on searching through the documents for the day and thought of postponing it for later that night. He ordered the papers, separating them into a pile he already read and the one he didn't have time to check out. Near was leaving the pile of unread documents in the table when a photo flew down to his feet out of one of the portfolios. He picked it up and caught a quick glance at it, at first sight, it didn't seem like something he hadn't witnessed before, but there was this little detail that shocked him and prevented him from looking away. The '**L**' successor inspected the back of the photograph, looking for the title of the case, and once he identified the code number, he took the portfolio from which the picture had fallen from out of the unread pile.

Near couldn't believe what he had in front of him, and it was impossible for him to decide if he was supposed to smile or remain silent in terror.

**(Tokyo, Japan, 6:47pm)**

In an unclean living room, with two young men nearing their middle 20s as its only audience, a noisy television narrated the events that took place in the last week through a nice-looking female interlocutor. The two men listened with close attention to what the woman had to say, but interrupted her from time to time for an eventual comment.

"…out of the 24 passengers that were travelling in the bus that afternoon at around 3 O'clock, unluckily, only one traveller survived" The TV reported "He was sitting next to the driver and claims that the man, Daichi Aramo, deliberately changed the course of the vehicle with the express intention to crash it against a close building at top speed. However, no signs of lack of saneness have been found in any previous behaviour patterns from Mr. Aramo and the reason to his sudden, outrageous, final act is still to be identified…"

"Did you notice?" One of the men in the room said to the other with a bored expression. "They always give us the facts and questions, but they can never tell the reason for a killing"

"Maybe they just don't want people to know." The other one said with a sincere smile, scratching his short, black hair with one hand while pressing the mute button of the TV with the other. "There are some things that are better off not being known."

"That's your answer for everything, Masa." The first man said, laying his back against the couch and sighing. "Aren't you at least curious about what was the mystery behind it?"

"Hmmm" the man responding to the nickname Masa thought it over. "Not really; if you ask my opinion, mysteries are better off unsolved. In the end, the result is disappointing."

"What?!" the roommate exclaimed, making obvious he didn't like the answer his friend had given "It's not a matter of whether you like it or not! It's a matter of justice!"

"What difference does it make? The crime is done, so what is going to change if we punish the criminal?"

"Nothing, just preventing him from doing it again!"

"People don't change, if someone is born a criminal then they are likely to be like that forever." Masa said with a stupid smile, not realizing the little sense he was making.

"That's a different subject." The other man said, relaxing. He was used to his companion's nonsensical comments and he wasn't supposed to start a debate on that at this point. "Just put the volume on again, will ya?"

Masa took the remote control and turned the volume up again, not happy with his roommate evading a discussion with him. The TV female narrator recovered her voice and her never-ending narration recovered its life again. "… On a different subject, in Beijing, China, a mysterious act of suicidal has taken place. No signs leading to such action were found and it has been impossible to determine the cause for it yet." A picture of the place where the man committed suicide appeared in the screen and another woman's voice narrated from the back the details of the murder. "The man's body was found in an ancient graveyard in Beijing, China, at an undetermined time. A young, college student of the name Bei Le Shou was found dead next to the sculpture of an angel of a nameless grave. The curious thing about the case is that a notebook was found in the sculpture's hand and…"

"Holy shit! What time is it?!" one of the roommates asked.

"It's almost 7, why?" Masa asked while checking his watch.

"Akari is going to kill me!" he said with a desperate face, referring to his girlfriend.

Masa watched his roommate run from one side of the room to the other, getting hold on anything he could with fast movements of his hands. In record time, he was already in possession of his coat, keys and some of Masa's money and was leaving the apartment.

"Hey, I'll be late tonight, so you take care of dinner." His roommate ordered Masa.

"Sure, I'll make sure we get something delivered." Masa responded, his eyes pasted once again to the TV screen.

"That's what I thought…" and, the next second, Masa was left alone in the room.

Minutes passed and the room remained calmed with the exception of the TV screen, which kept talking to it's now silent audience, mentioning more tragedies around the world, only this time its only viewer was not paying any attention to it. Masa didn't move from the spot he was sitting on and his now calm face didn't change during that time. He was counting the end of the 4th minute when, suddenly, a shadow slowly descended from the roof and stood high and mighty over Masa, blocking his view to the television. The young man lifted his head towards the creature; it wore a great amount of feathers over its head, like in the ancient American civilizations, where everyone hunted with wooden bows and arrows. Its flesh was gray and rotten and its mouth was widely open, which gave it the look of a walking corpse.

"Were you watching the news?" Masa asked the creature with a tranquil smile while standing up.

"**Yeah, but it wasn't easy with that guy present, you shouldn't have let him touch the 'Death Note'**." The creature answered, unsurprised by the human's indifference.

"I told you I don't feel comfortable with you following me around, Zerho." Masa answered, walking away towards his room, followed by the creature. "This was the only way to maintain some of my privacy. Plus, I wanted to see if it was true that could become visible only by having someone touch the 'Death Note'"

"**I also told you to show respect to me**" the monster said, jumping over Masa's head and landing in front of him, facing him with its ugly face and cutting his way "**I can let you have your private time if you want, but if you don't start addressing me by my full name, I'll write your name in my note, Akawa Masahiro.**"

"I think none of us would like that, Zerhogie" Masa said, and, even though he looked calmed, he still addressed the shinigami by his full name. "Anyways, getting back to the news report…" the human said, moving on towards his room "I think that will be enough to drive '**L**' into the case, my message explicit enough…"

"**Maybe too explicit…**" Zerhogie interrupted in a murmur, but it was more of a comment to himself than to Masa.

"You worry too much, when people see the statue holding the book, that Near guy will be the only one to actually get what it means, the rest won't give it much thought, since they will think Bei Le Shou was a lunatic." Masa clarified,

"**I already knew that**" Zerhogie claimed, and Masa noticed his tone had become friendlier, like it usually was "**But you should still watch what you are doing, if you give out too much of our secret to the world…**"

"You will kill me, I know" Masa interrupted, he heard that warning at least 4 times per day and was aware that there were many things that would lead to the shinigami to kill him.

"**Not only me, many other death gods will keep an eye on you from now on; I just want you to be aware of your limits, it wouldn't be fun if you died too early**." Zerhogie explained, and his foul mouth imitated a smile. "**But I was wondering, why a Chinese student?**"

"Killing a Japanese person would make Japan a possibility of my location, though that may not be important, since all the other 'Death Notes' appeared here, so they will probably start by inspecting this country nevertheless." Masa said while sitting down on a chair, looking for his black-ink pen. "I should try to confuse them by killing criminals of different countries, that way they won't know where to start. However, I could also kill criminals from a single country and drive '**L**' into thinking that's where I am though he'll probably see through it."

"**That's a great plan, except that the only way you can kill criminals is if they appear in the news or the internet. Kira had access to the police's confidential information, you don't**."

"That's true, I've tried everything to get that information, but I couldn't even hack into their computer system, so I depend on the media, but that's ok for now." Masa said, searching for something in a pile of papers, notebooks and similar. "I've figured out a way to get it, and you will see pretty soon what I mean."

"**That seems quite vague**." Zerhogie said in disappointment.

"Found it!" Masa exclaimed when he finally found a black notebook with the white words 'Death Note' carved in cursive on it. "Zerhogie, do you know what the difference between Kira and me is?"

"…" the shinigami didn't answer.

"Kira failed because he was too arrogant and selfish" Masa said while writing something on the 'Death Note' "That's why I will succeed where he failed."

And it was at that moment, that the shinigami Zerhogie understood where the human potential lied: their ego.


End file.
